Chapter 19: Minneapolis

My old boss had a hospitality conference in Hayward, forty minutes from Tern Lake, and she was at the Daily Grind by noon.

I knew her car before she parked it.

It was the only one in town with leather seats and a valet sticker from a good hotel.

She came through the door in a camel coat with her sunglasses pushed into her silver hair.

Every head in the cafe turned and held.

【Pete: Stranger in cashmere. Stranger in cashmere. Everybody act natural.】

【Sue: Nobody in this room can act natural. We have been practicing the opposite for forty years.】

"Britta Sorensen," she said, and hugged me like I'd come home from a war.

"You look like you're sleeping."

"I've been sleeping fine."

"I didn't say well." She held me at arm's length and gave me the look that had made vendors cry.

"Sit. I'm ordering the walleye."

"It's noon."

"It's Wisconsin."

She sat across from me with her coat still on, and the whole cafe leaned in at once.

"The clip has forty-one thousand views," she said. "Four group clients have called me. Every one of them wants the woman who took the microphone."

"She wasn't fired," I said. "She was on leave."

"She was on eight weeks of unused leave, banked since the wedding that didn't happen. I know. I filed it."

She slid a folded sheet across the table.

"Director of Events, all three properties. Start January fourth. One hundred eighteen thousand."

I looked at the number and kept my face still.

"And it's three days in the office, not five," she said. "For you, I'd do two."

"I want you running the rooms. I don't want you running the walls."

"That's generous."

"It's overdue."

Over her shoulder, the chat was building a case.

【Pete: She's recruiting. I have eyes. Pool opens: Does Britta leave? Leaves 5 to 1.】

【Helen: Oh no. Not before the Fish Fry.】

【Sue: Helen, she has not even finished her fries.】

【Dolly: (private message to granddaughter) she has a camel coat. that is not a good sign.】

【Sue: *This was not private, Dolly.】